The Great British Pubco Scam. Pubs are closing all over Britain yet pubs are places that most people love and think fondly of as some of the most significant, treasured, iconic parts of our culture, places to be cherished, nurtured and looked after. Yet they're closing everywhere... WHY? It doesn't make sense does it? Read on...
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Saturday, June 25, 2011

If I've understood correctly, things are not looking good for you at the moment.
I don't know what to say. Again, if I understand correctly, you stand to lose your pub?

I really hope not. If someone like you, with such an understanding of the business
is in such a bad way, it doesn't bode well for the rest of us.

I won't go on as I may be wrong. I hope I am.

Wish I could help, as others, including yourself, have helped me this past eighteen
months or so.

Look after you and yours.

All the very best,

Russ.

Hi Russell

Thanks for the message. Your note of concern is more than enough Russell, I really appreciate it. This is all going to be a step toward the next phase of my life, what that is exactly is not clear but I have a lot of irons in my own fire that I've had on hold because of my interminable trap of in the pub. I don't know where I'm going to live, I'll be on income support with housing benefit - single males are at the bottom of the priority list in housing terms. So it will be interesting, several friends have offered to let me have a room with them if needs be so I'll be OK one way or another.

The story Ewan posted is just about the sum of it. It's straightforward but has taken a long time for S&N to act. I'm massively in debt to them for the back rent and legals for the 2005 rent review. They've been trying to find ways for me to pay them back for two years which all involve going fully tied, having brulines installed and all the usual bullshit I'm simply not going to entertain - they made me in debt by ignoring the FACTS about my business's ability to accommodate a rent increase when all other overheads were going to be going through the roof (as they have just as everyone predicted) and, as I predicted, the increase in rent, which I've been trying to pay since October 2008, has quite simply put the business into permanent loss. So I'm in court Tuesday for forfeiture. I don't have an argument but I'm going to try throwing a spanner in their works just to delay things. Been messing their solicitors around too for fun. When you have nothing to lose it's easy to play with them. They send letters written in ominous terms about costs escalating and I just think 'well, that's interesting, they seem to think that I will be paying these bills when, in fact I will not because I have no money and I have no assets. Their client will be picking up the bill'. They are all utterly incompetent, their work is so easy, no one ever stands up to them and they get lazy working for pubcos, they lack intellectual rigour, struggle to write clearly and haven't any proof reading skills.

Seriously Russell I don't believe it's possible to run a tied pub profitably without under declaring income and running 10-20% off the books. I believe the tie criminalises people as they attempt to stay afloat and the only people it benefits in any way at all are the pubcos because they almost inevitably are the last people whose bills don't get paid. It's just a huge scam. I'm not sure you'd believe the stories we get coming in to Fair Pint from lessees who have been totally royally shafted by the pubcos. They're all the same. Essentially they all behave the same way. Bullies.

I'm working on setting up a radically new type of pubco. It's called The People's Pub Partnership. Putting pubs back at the heart of their communities. If I can make it come off it will sort me out financially - at about a fifth of Simon Townsend's salary and I'll be forever loaded and happy with a level of financial security I've never had before AND more importantly I think it should force a paradigm shift in the way pubs are run, and regarded, that will be something we can be proud of.

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J Mark Dodds

I’m one of the Pub Persuaders, one of the Pub Professionals, one of the People who knows what’s going on – in PUBS that is - and this blog is about pubs, why they are so important to people and why they must be preserved, reinvigorated, enhanced and remade fit for purpose for the 21st century and beyond and how they must be made sustainable so that future generations can enjoy and learn from the rich seams of knowledge that can be found on everyone’s doorstep in every humble pub – until it’s closed forever – until it’s too late and people say ‘what happened to our pub? We really NEEDED that pub!’
I’m a publican, parent and photographer with a lot of food and drink experience in some of the busiest restaurants and clubs in Britain. Since long before 2008 (when I co-founded the Fair Pint Campaign) I’ve been a pro pubs, people and places person at the forefront of the national conversation about why pubs are closing… everywhere.
I love good pubs, my kids love good pubs, all my friends love good pubs – everyone loves good pubs and I’m determined to make sure good pubs remain part of everybody’s experience - of growing up in the UK and of visiting this country.